


Cactus Flower

by FairyLights101



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-09
Updated: 2017-04-09
Packaged: 2018-10-16 22:19:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10580643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyLights101/pseuds/FairyLights101
Summary: “You always come out here.” That pulled him back and he blinked, found Lance smiling in a way that made his scar crinkle across his cheek and by his eye. “Every time I try to find you and can’t, you’re always out here.”“I’m closest to space here I guess.”





	

The earth was cool under his back, the last of the day’s warmth having seeped away, slow and steady, leaving nothing but a chill in the air as the last of the sun’s glow finally disappeared, leaving behind only the skies and stars, the scent of flowers and baked earth in the air. No clouds, only solar systems and galaxies overhead, a thousand, million, billion places above that he couldn’t reach with the fingers that trailed overhead, tracing the constellations, imagining just where all the planets they’d visited lay. Keith sighed, let his hand fall to his chest. 

Zarkon had been defeated. The Galra Empire had been shattered, leaving Allura and Coran to pick up the pieces and settle the universe into a semblance of peace while they tried to undo all that Zarkon had done. Voltron was no longer truly needed, and so they’d returned to Earth, their lions carefully hidden away, their paths laid out before them. 

But he’d returned to the red mesas and desert, unsure of where to go, always drawn back to Red, back to the place where it had all begun.  _ Let’s be real though, it all began before that.  _ With his parents. With the blade. With a tyrant’s actions ten-thousand years before. Keith trailed his hands through the dirt underneath him. Dirt he’d once thought he’d never see again, surrounded by scents he’d feared that he would never get to experience again. A million things that he thought he’d never get to do or see or smell again, thinking he’d never make it back to Earth. 

_ But we did. I should be happy. This is where I belong.  _ But it didn’t feel like it, not truly. Because, as much as Earth had been a home to him for so many years, it was also  _ not.  _ His blood sang differently, begged for something  _ more,  _ something  _ new,  _ and it dragged him back out into the desert time and time again. He hadn’t left the shack in more than a month except for groceries, unwilling to part from the clearest view of the night sky, from the caves where Red sat.  _ This is so stupid. I should just go back to… something.  _ He hadn’t left anything behind - no job, no family, no friends. Just the shack and research, endless amounts of it. 

_ Maybe Hunk or Pidge-  _

He shook his head, threw himself up into a sitting position. “No,” he murmured, “They have their own lives.” They couldn’t leave,  _ shouldn’t  _ leave, not when they had their own things, when they seemed happy on the ground, safe, no longer travelling the stars. Shiro had his hands full too, educating people of Earth about their travels, about the existence of aliens. And Lance-  _ Best not.  _

Keith sighed, leaned forward to rest his forehead on his knees.  _ This sucks. I should just go.  _ Where, he wasn’t sure. Earth didn’t feel right, no matter how many places he’d travelled when they’d first returned. It didn’t have the same splendor, the same  _ freedom. Maybe Red and I can go back and see Allura and Coran. See the new Altea. _

A scuff made him freeze. Keith stiffened, snapped around, one hand on his blade - he went still. A familiar figure stood a few meters away, a lantern in his hands, high enough that Keith could see the shit-eating grin and bright eyes, and that familiar, beat up green jacket that Lance had clung to since their trainee days. Keith smiled faintly, slid his blade back into its sheath and settled back as Lance came forward, sank beside him with a soft hum and turned the lantern off with a click. Neither of them said anything as they leaned onto their backs, Lance grunting at the rocks underneath. They simply laid there, hands by their sides, so close between them that Keith could just barely feel the warmth leaking off Lance’s hand. 

It took a lot to not reach over and let their fingers overlap, and yet nothing at all. 

It was calm. There was distance between them, even with the proximity, and he wasn’t sure how to cross the space that had settled between them, awkward and uncertain, tremulous in how flighty it was. They had come together and pulled apart far too often to be good, finding one another somewhere beneath those never-ending skies before they burst apart to hurtle back on their own courses before they eventually collided again, forever orbiting one another. But, after every parting, Keith could feel a piece of him chipping away, gathered by those scarred, steady hands that could fire a gun with extraordinary precision or take a metal pipe and crush an enemy’s skull in, only to caress his face, luring him in with sweet words and promises of warmth Lance always fulfilled. 

Keith sighed, turned his head. Lance was already looking at him, eyes cast in shadows, almost unreadable. “What are you staring at?” he whispered. 

Lance grinned. “Just the most handsome man in the universe.” 

“Your flirting hasn’t gotten any better.” “And you haven’t gotten any taller.” 

Keith’s nose crinkled, but he didn’t look away, didn’t swat at his - friend? Lover? There wasn’t a word that could accurately describe whatever it was they had, not in any language he knew.  _ Maybe the Alteans have a word.  _ And if not the Alteans, then probably someone from another planet - the Balmera, the Galra. Someone would have a word and, maybe, an answer. 

“You always come out here.” That pulled him back and he blinked, found Lance smiling in a way that made his scar crinkle across his cheek and by his eye. “Every time I try to find you and can’t, you’re always out here.” 

“I’m closest to space here I guess.” 

Lance hummed, eyes cutting back to the sky above. “You come here because you want to go.” Not a question, but a certain statement. Keith didn’t bother to answer. A soft laugh bubbled out, short, not quite right. “Why don’t you go then?” 

“I… don’t know.” And, truly, he didn’t. He’d been close more than once, seated in Red, the quintessence humming around him, filling him with energy that left him quivering with excitement as his hands hovered over the controls. And yet, despite all those times, he’d never once taken off, and he’d left Red in her cave, hidden safely in the darkness behind her shields. 

Lance’s head turned back to him. No smile this time. No expression at all, and that made Keith’s stomach swoop with uncertainty. He bit his lip. “I’ve been wanting to go too. I guess I just don’t want to be alone.” 

“... Oh.”  _ That makes sense.  _ Sure, they would have made it to a place with friendly aliens in the span of a few minutes, less if Allura was contacted to open a wormhole -  _ then why would you be lonely?  _ But, perhaps, he could answer that himself, even without raising the question, without hearing Lance’s response. Because, inevitably, they found themselves gravitating to one another, drawn away and apart over and over, but always circling closer and closer, the gaps shortening, leaving barely any breathing room before a fight flung them back apart, only to repeat. And the ache of loneliness between each of those collisions was hard - worse than the years away from Earth even. 

“Yeah,” Lance said softly, barely audible over the whisper of wind through the canyons. Warmth brushed across Keith’s fingertips. “I wanted someone to go with me. I guess I just didn’t know how to ask.” 

He wasn’t sure who moved first, just that, somehow, he ended up sprawled on Lance’s chest, a warm hand cupping his cheek, another on the small of his back as he tangled his fingers into that shaggy brown hair, tugging as he crushed their lips together. Lance grinned, a silent laugh bubbling up and shaking them both, and Keith couldn’t help but smile either as he grinned, nipped at Lance’s lip. Lance made a little sound, happy, as his arms wound around Keith, pulled him closer, and Keith felt himself come  _ alive,  _ nose filled with the scent of the earth and cactus flowers and Lance’s cologne, skin hot as Lance’s fingers danced beneath his jacket, his shirt, and found bare skin dappled with scars. 

There was a tickle in his throat, a burn in his eyes, but he pushed it to the side, kept his eyes closed tight as their lips moved together, Lance’s rough, but still painfully, blessedly familiar. Teeth nipped at his tongue, his lips, and Keith let out a shuddering breath as they slowed, then pulled apart enough for lips and noses to brush, eyes open, golden light playing across Lance’s face. Keith wanted to close his eyes, wanted to hide that other part of him, but he stopped at Lance’s smile, beautiful and sweet, and the way he closed the miniscule distance once more to kiss him on the corners of his lips, his nose, then on the mouth once more. “I love you,” he breathed, “I always have.” 

“I know,” Keith said simply. 

Lance’s mouth thinned, the softness in his eyes melting into a deadpan stare as he shook his head. “Trying to be fuckin’ romantic, and you’ve gotta ruin the mood. I swear-” 

“I love you too.”

Lance froze. His mouth worked for a minute, blinking slowly in that muted golden light, before a shy smile spread across his lips. “Let’s go to space, kitty boy.” 

Their hands found one another, their feet scraping across the rocks and sand as they picked their way down through the canyon, the path well-worn, familiar to Keith. He was certain, joy singing through his veins as he clutched Lance’s hand tighter and breathed in the sweet Earth air, tasted the life that hung in the air, rich and vibrant, tenacious as the wildflowers that dotted the path and the cactuses that broke through the valley.  _ We’re coming. _

**Author's Note:**

> First actual Voltron fic? Let me know how I did ୧ʕ•̀ᴥ•́ʔ୨ hit me up at [fairylights101writes](http://fairylights101writes.tumblr.com/)  
> I also blame Jamie for dragging me into Voltron. Damn you :')


End file.
